The Complete Tolkien Companion (22 page)

Crossings of Teiglin
– The most southerly ford across the swift river Teiglin, before this stream became too torrential, and its sides too precipitous, for crossing. These fords lay some three miles west of the most westerly eaves of Brethil, at a point where the old road from Tol Sirion and Mithrim to Nargothrond left the safety of the Forest and wandered out on to the plain of Talath Dirnen.

Cuiviénen
‘Water of Awakening' (Q.) – The name given in the traditions of the Eldar to the ancient lake, somewhere in the unknown East of Middle-earth, beside whose waters the Quendi ‘awoke', far back in the deeps of time. The Grey-elven form of this name was
Nen Echui.

Culúrien
‘The-Red-and-Gold' (Q.) – One of the many names given by the Valar and Eldar to
LAURELIN THE GOLDEN
, one of the two trees of Valinor.

Curse of Mandos
– The dreadful pronouncement of doom made upon the Noldor by the Vala Mandos, in Araman, after the rebellion of Fëanor and the Kinslaying at Alqualondë. It was the inevitable corollary to the Oath of Fëanor, and proved a truer set of fore-tellings. Also called the Prophecy of the North.

Curufin the Crafty
– The fifth son of Fëanor, and that one of the seven brethren most like to their father both in temperament and abilities. (His name is but an adaptation of Fëanor's own birth-name Curufinwë.) He was born in Valinor, and like all the Sons of Fëanor took the dreadful Oath that carried Fëanor's host and the hosts of his allies back to Middle-earth. There Curufin held lands in league with his brother Celegorm, with whom he had most in common; and throughout the War he fought and schemed at Celegorm's side. Nevertheless it may be suggested here that, apart from Fëanor himself, of all the Noldor who came back to Middle-earth in those days, Curufin seems to have been the most ‘evil' (if
evil
is a word that can safely be applied to any of the Eldar). Certainly his were the most evil deeds, though it was perhaps his inheritance of character combined with the driving force of the Oath they had all taken which was ultimately responsible. Next to Fëanor himself, Curufin was the greatest craftsman of the Noldor, and great service he could have rendered; but in latter days he chose instead to scheme and plot and wage war against those whose interests were in common with his own. He was slain in the attack on Doriath, together with Celegorm and Caranthir. Curufin was the father of Celebrimbor

Curufinwë
‘The Skilful' (Q.) – The birth-name of the Noldorin prince
FËANOR
given by his father Finwë.

Curunír
‘Man of Skill' (Sind. from Q.
Curuno
) – An honorary title applied by the Elves and Dúnedain to the wizard
SARUMAN THE WHITE
. The valley in which he later settled, at the feet of the Misty Mountains, was known to Men of Gondor as
Nan Curunír,
The Wizard's Vale.

Cúthalion
‘Strongbow' (Sind.)
See
BELEG CÚTHALION
.

Daeron
– A Grey-elf of the First Age; according to Elvish tradition, the minstrel and loremaster of Thingol King of Doriath. His is a shadowy figure (his name actually means ‘shadowy', or perhaps ‘hidden') on the borders of several tales of those days, chiefly that of Beren and Lúthien. Daeron is said to have loved Lúthien, and to have twice betrayed her to her father in the matter of Beren of the Edain. The minstrel afterwards went away into the east and became lost to the knowledge of the Elves.

His chief memorial remains his systemising and re-ordering of the ancient Grey-elven runic alphabet (the
certhas
), the use of which then gradually spread among other races. Daeron's Runes may be considered the oldest known form of common writing originated in Middle-earth.

See
ALPHABET OF DAERON
.

Dagnir
‘Victor' (Sind.) – One of the twelve faithful Edain of Dorthonion who remained in that land with
BARAHIR
after the Dagor Bragollach, and waged a guerrilla war against the occupying armies of Angband.

Dagnir Glaurunga
‘Bane of Glaurung' (Sind.) – Part of the epitaph engraved upon the tombstone of Túrin Turambar at Cabed Naeramarth. It was Túrin who had slain the greatest Worm of the Age, the fire-drake Glaurung of Angband, who had ravaged the north and sacked Nargothrond, and had been defeated only once before.

Dagor Aglareb
‘Glorious Battle' (Sind.) – The third of the
BATTLES OF BELERIAND
. It was fought in about the 60th Year of the Sun and, as its name implies, was the greatest victory ever won by the Eldar over the forces of Angband. It began as an assault on all fronts by Morgoth, a broad southward push against the Eldarin kingdoms of the North; while separate hosts of Orcs and Trolls burst through the Pass of Sirion in the west, and through Maglor's Gap in the east, the main army of Angband came up against the northern walls of the Dorthonion highland. There they were contained, and afterwards taken on both flanks, by the Elves. They broke, and, in retreating across the endless leagues of Ard-galen, were exposed to the cavalry of the Eldar, and annihilated. Those who had penetrated into Beleriand were afterwards ‘mopped up' piecemeal.

Dagor Bragollach
– The
BATTLE OF SUDDEN FLAME
.

Dagor Dagorath
‘The Battle of Battles' – A reference to the Second Prophecy of Mandos, which is that at the end of Arda Melkor will return for one last and greatest battle against the Valar and all Free Peoples: it will take place on the Plains of Valinor and Manwë himself shall descend from Taniquetil to make war: but it shall be the hand of Túrin which deals the death-stroke and slays Evil for ever.

Dagorlad
‘Plain-of-Victory' (Sind.) – The flat, barren plain which lay before the Gates of Mordor, and the location of the greatest battle of the Second Age, between the forces of Sauron and the armies of the Last Alliance.

Dagor-nuin-Giliath
– The ‘Battle-Under-Stars' (Sind.); the second of the
BATTLES OF BELERIAND
, fought in the year before the rising of the Moon by the newly returned Noldor of the House of Fëanor against a sudden – and badly timed and planned – assault from Angband. It was a swift and crushing victory for the High-elves, but Fëanor himself was mortally wounded.

Dáin I
– A King of Durin's Folk; a ruler of the Dwarves of the Grey Mountains (Ered Mithrin), and a descendant of Thráin I, who had founded the kingdom of Erebor after the Dwarves fled from Moria. It was under Thráin's son Thorin I that most of Durin's Folk left Erebor for the unexplored riches of the Ered Mithrin further north. There, for some three hundred years, their wealth grew, until rumours of it eventually reached the ears of the Dragons of the Northern Waste and Withered Heath. In 2589 Third Age one of these slew King Dáin and his second son Frór at the very doors of their Hall. Soon afterwards, most of the Dwarf-colony deserted the Grey Mountains and many returned to Erebor, where their skills soon rendered them even more prosperous than before. Dáin's heir Thrór then became King under the Mountain.

Dáin (II) Ironfoot
– The greatest warrior and one of the wisest kings of Durin's folk. He was born in the year 2767 Third Age, the son of Náin son of Grór, King of the Dwarves of the Iron Hills in the far North-east. Thus he was only thirty years of age – and considered still a stripling by his people – when called upon to fight at the
BATTLE OF AZANULBIZAR
, the greatest and final clash of arms in the War of the Dwarves and Orcs. The army of the Iron Hills arrived late on the battlefield, and Dáin's father Náin soon fell at the hands of Azog. Dáin then slew the great Orc with his axe. He later led his folk back to the Iron Hills, where he became King. In the year 2941 the Dwarves of Thorin Oakenshield's party, besieged in the Lonely Mountain by hosts of Men and Wood-elves, sent to Dáin for aid; he duly arrived with a great force of mail-clad Dwarves who played a prominent part in the
BATTLE OF FIVE ARMIES
. In that great fight Thorin Oakenshield, heir of Durin, was slain, and Dáin, as Thorin's true heir, was then made King under the Mountain. He proved a wise ruler, having the friendship of the Men of Dale and Esgaroth and the respect of the Elves of Mirkwood. But during the War of the Ring, even Dáin's great prestige was insufficient to prevent an invasion of Dale and Erebor by Easterlings of Sauron's rule. The combined forces of Men and Dwarves failed to stem the tide and were driven back to Erebor. There, Dáin Ironfoot, standing over the body of his fallen ally King Brand, continued to wield his famous axe until, in his turn, he fell – in the 252nd year of his life.

Dairuin
– One of the Edain of the First House; a companion of Barahir in Dorthonion; slain (as were all save Beren) by treachery and ambush.

Daisy Gamgee
– The eighth of the thirteen children of Samwise Gamgee, named after his eldest sister.

Dale
– A city-state established by Northern Men during the Third Age on the southward slopes of Erebor in Wilderland; it was traditionally friendly with the Dwarf-kingdom under the Mountain. The township prospered through this long association: in exchange for works of metal and stone, the Men of Dale traded foodstuffs, cloth and other essentials necessary to the Dwarf-community. For many years the two settlements lived in peace and mutual prosperity (like the realms of Eregion and Moria long before). But when Smaug the Golden, greatest Dragon of his time, came against the Lonely Mountain (in 2941 Third Age), the nearby town of Dale was burned and its people dispersed. Most of them made their way south to swell the numbers of the lake-community of Esgaroth, becoming fishermen and boatmen.

In the last third of his own narrative,
There and Back Again,
Bilbo Baggins gives a clear account of how the Dwarves retook Erebor, how the Dragon was slain by Bard of Esgaroth (descended from King Girion of Dale), and how Dale and Erebor were re-established in peace and prosperity.
1
However, in the War of the Ring, Dale – always vulnerable to invasion from the East – was captured by armies of Easterlings sent by Sauron to clear the route from Rhûn to Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains. Brand son of Bain, son of Bard the Bowman, was slain, and his son Bard II became King and drove the enemy away. In the Fourth Age which followed, Dale prospered.

Damrod
– A scout for the Rangers of Ithilien, who were led by Faramir in their guerrilla attacks against the Harad Road at the time of the War of the Ring.

Dark Door
– The ancient entrance from the foot of the Dwimorberg Mountain in Dunharrow to the maze of tunnels and passages under the White Mountains. Delved in the Black Years by a forgotten race, this later became known as the ‘Paths of the Dead'.

Dark-elves
– A translation of the Quenya word
Moriquendi;
the Eldarin term for all those of Elvenkind who never came to Valinor, Eldamar or Eressëa – as opposed to the
Calaquendi
or ‘Light-elves' (and also the Sindar, who, though they did not go to Aman while the First Age lasted, afterwards journeyed there, as the Sea-longing took them, and were thus reunited with the remainder of the Eldar; as a result they are not accounted among the ‘Dark-elves'). Included in the category of Moriquendi are two Telerin peoples: the
Nandor
and the
Laiquendi;
and all the
Avari,
the ‘Unwilling', separated from the Eldarin kindreds at the Beginning of Days. But an extraneous source tells us that this term ‘Dark-elves' underwent a shift of meaning during the First and Second Ages, and often carried overtones that did not strictly refer to the ancient (and somewhat blurred) dichotomy between Light-elves (of Aman) and Dark-elves (of Middle-earth). The extent of the problem can be easily understood when one considers that, of three Eldarin kindreds, the Vanyar went to Aman and dwelt there everafter; the Noldor went to Aman and returned in exile to Middle-earth; and the Teleri became split into many subdivisions, some of whom went to Aman, some of whom remained in Beleriand (the Sindar) and some of whom abandoned the Great Journey while still east of the Misty Mountains: the Nandor, though later a further subdivision of the latter (the Laiquendi) came into Beleriand after all, and dwelt in Ossiriand. The Vanyar and the Noldor and the first kindred of the Teleri are all Calaquendi; the Nandor, the Laiquendi and the Avari are all Moriquendi; while the Sindar, Nandor and Laiquendi form a separate category altogether, the Úmanyar ‘Not of Aman'.